Lynne Featherstone

Twelve hundred two-year-old Haringey children will receive free early years’ education from next year.

This is in addition to three and four-year-old children in Haringey who are already eligible to receive 15 hours of free early years’ education per week.

Phase one will take effect from September 2013 with the second phase starting in September 2014.

The new support for children from the least well off families comes as part of a shake-up of early years’ education announced by Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.

The changes will provide greater flexibility for parents – the hours in which parents can bring in their children for their free place will be extended by two hours. Currently, parents are restricted by having to drop their children off no earlier than 8am and picking them up no later than 6pm. This will be extended to 7am – 7pm.  It will also give parents the option to spread their free nursery place over two days rather than three, making the system work better for working parents.

Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green, commented:

“This is great news for a large number of local families. Early years’ education gives a real boost to young children and really prepares them for school.

“Giving a fair chance to all children is a top priority for Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government. Every child deserves an equal chance to fulfil their own potential.”

Parents of children who need extra help to do well in school are to get a new legal right to buy-in specialist Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disabled care under coalition government proposals.

Parents will be given the power to control personal budgets for their children for the first time. This will allow them to make the decisions needed to get the expert support that is right for their child.

This is the biggest reform of SEN for 30 years and will force education, health and social care services to plan services together, making the system easier and less time-consuming for parents.

Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green, commented:

“Liberal Democrats in the coalition government are doing the right thing to end the agonising battle many parents have had to fight to get the support for their children.

“Under the current system, a child’s welfare is often buried under the bureaucracy of getting the help needed as parents are passed from pillar to post between different authorities and agencies.

“These reforms will put parents in charge. They will provide better information for families, bring services together with families to provide a package of support that meets their needs, removing the cliff-edge at 16 and helping young people into work and living as independently as they can.”

Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone visited a local Greek Secondary School in Wood Green on Friday, to talk to students about politics and life as a minister.

The Member of Parliament took questions from students between 12 and 18, and teachers.

She discussed important issues relevant to young people, including the body confidence campaign, staying safe online, and the Home Office campaign, “This is Abuse,” which aims to raise awareness of the dangers of abuse and rape amongst teenagers and young people.

Lynne Featherstone MP commented,

“I always enjoy visiting local schools, and I was delighted to visit such a unique school. The students recently went to visit Parliament, and it’s clear that many of them are really engaged with politics.”

Lynne was recently contacted by a number of local residents experiencing trouble with their child’s primary school place. A number of children seem to have been allocated no school place at all, which has understandably caused a great deal of worry for the parents concerned.

It’s crucially important that these problems are sorted out urgently. Lynne has written to the Chief Executive of Haringey Council expressing her concerns, and you can find a copy of the letter which Lynne has sent below. Lynne will be sure to keep residents updated on the situation.

Letter from Lynne to Haringey Council Chief Executive, Kevin Crompton:

Dear Kevin,

RE:  Primary School Places 2012

I am writing with regards to the recent allocation of primary school places to children who are due to begin their education in the 2012/13 academic year.

I have been contacted by a large number of parents, and have been informed that many children have been offered places which are simply not practical. Of greater concern are the number of children (particularly in the Muswell Hill area) who have not been offered any school place at all. Many of these parents live in very close proximity (in some cases, less than 0.1 miles) to a number of primary schools, such as Muswell Hill Primary, Tetherdown, Rhodes and Coldfall.

I will of course be making enquiries on behalf of individual children and parents through the members’ enquiry system. There are, however, more general concerns and queries which I would like to raise with you.

I am keen to know exactly how many children who applied for a primary school place for the 2012/13 academic year have not been offered a place. I would also like to know how many have been offered a place that wasn’t in their ‘top 6’ choices. On confirmation of these figures, I would be grateful if you could let me know what the Council will do to ensure that these children will be given a place by the time term starts.

I would also be grateful if you could outline the policy used this year when allocating school places. For instance, were the places determined by distance to the school, or other criteria?

I would be most grateful if you could address the specific points that have been raised. Thank you for your kind attention in this regard and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Lynne

Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone spoke to almost 100 students, aged 13 to 18, at the Channing School on Friday.

The girls’ school in Highgate has an active politics society and organisers Emily Mills and Naomi Lane invited their local MP to speak about life as a Member of Parliament and a minister in the coalition government.

Lynne Featherstone described how she ran her first campaign as a design student at Oxford Polytechnic and how she later rediscovered politics and decided that the way to bring about change was to run for office.

She told the students not to hold back from getting involved in politics.

“Often when I visit schools I ask the class who wants to be Prime Minister. Many of the boys will put their hands up but very few of the girls do – but that didn’t apply to the Channing School students. It was great to see so many of them there and so many keen to get involved. There are too few women active in politics and that is something that we have to change,” she said.

Free early education will be extended to 140,000 disadvantaged two-year- olds, and parents will be able to access the free entitlement more flexibly, under plans published by the Government on Friday.

In Haringey around 1,000 two-year olds are expected to benefit from the proposals.

Liberal Democrat Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, announced a consultation on Friday on how this commitment will be implemented. The plans include proposals to help parents and children alike by making the free entitlement of 15 hours per week of early education more flexible, so it can be taken between 7am and 7pm across two days instead of the current three days.

Commenting, Lynne Featherstone MP said:

“Helping 1,000 two-year-old children from the poorest backgrounds with early education in Haringey will benefit them for years to come.

“Improving social mobility is a Liberal Democrat priority in Government and early years education is crucial to achieve this.

“We want us to give every child the best possible start – so free education for toddlers from the most disadvantaged homes will now be a right and not a privilege.

“Crucially the extra care will be flexible and easy to access. Parents across the country are bending over backwards to balance work and home. The Coalition wants to help in whatever way we can.”

Children’s spokesperson Councillor Katherine Reece adds:

“High quality early education is key to making a difference early in a child’s life and to help make Britain a fairer and more equal society.

“Targetting early education at those who stand to benefit most is crucial in achieving this goal. Disadvantaged children’s healthy development will be greatly benefitted by this initiative. This should help them from falling behind before they have even started primary school.”

London Liberal Democrats led by Brian Paddick on Friday gave their firm backing to Lynne Featherstone MP’s long-running campaign for fair funding for the Borough’s schools.

The mayoral candidate joined the fight for better school funding as the second leg in a consultation to simplify the school funding system came to a close on 11^th October. This round of consultation has seen an even stronger backing by residents, with close to 130 local people, teachers and schools making personal submissions to the consultation.

Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick, GLA Liberal Democrat member Caroline Pidgeon and GLA candidate Dawn Barnes on Friday jointly backed the campaign during a visit to Haringey.

In addition to fighting for local schools to get fairer funding in a new funding formula, Liberal Democrats are already delivering more funding for local schools, through the pupil premium. It was last week announced that this year, schools will get close to £500 per deprived pupil, an increase on the £430 promised earlier in the year, adding up to an extra £2.2 million for schools in Hornsey and Wood Green. For the Borough, that adds up to a boost of £5.3 million this school year alone.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I’m delighted to have such a strong backing in the battle for fair funding, both from Brian and his team and from local residents who really have come out in force to respond to the consultation. Thank you all.

“I am sure that this strong support will make a world of difference and hopefully tip the balance in favour of our children.

“But local schools are already reaping the benefits of Liberal Democrats in government, by getting an extra £5.3 million to support deprived pupils this year alone. I’m proud to see us delivering for local schools already and I look forward to hearing the outcome of this consultation in the next few months.”

Liberal Democrat London Mayoral candidate, Brian Paddick, adds:

“I was appalled to hear of the long-standing unfairness in the way Haringey schools have been funded over the years.

“But it’s great to see the new government taking strong action to simplify the school funding system and looking specifically at the case of Haringey. I am 100 per cent behind Lynne in her long-running battle for this injustice to end. Give Haringey’s children fair funding now!”

Lynne Featherstone MP is urging local residents to “seize the best opportunity for a decade” to change Haringey’s unfair school funding system after the government this week published plans to end the long-standing injustice caused by local schools getting outer London funding but paying inner London wages.

The announcement of the start of the second part of the much anticipated school funding consultation has been welcomed by Liberal Democrats as it proposes a fairer funding system for all schools and specifically mentions “6 London authorities who are required to pay inner London weighting to teachers, whilst receiving outer London funding,” which includes Haringey.

The current funding regime results in Haringey’s schools getting £1500 per pupil less than schools in neighbouring boroughs like Hackney. However if the new ‘combined approach’ is adopted as proposed in the consultation, the historic injustice of Haringey paying inner London wages but getting outer London funding will come to an end.

The Hornsey and Wood Green MP, who has been spearheading her ‘fair funding’ campaign since unearthing the anomaly in 2007, is now writing to thousands of residents, urging them to respond to the consultation, which is running until 11th October.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“It’s been a long, hard campaign, and the wonderful residents of Hornsey and Wood Green have been tirelessly backing me by signing petitions and responding to consultations to try and end this injustice.

“Labour recognised the unfairness, but in 13 years in power refused to do anything about it, until three months before getting voted out of office. One of the first things Liberal Democrats in government have done has been to announce that unfair school funding could notcontinue, and that this anomaly would have to be addressed.

“So here we are, a year into government, with Lib Dems putting clear proposals on the table to end Haringey’s historic injustice.

“Now I need the people of Hornsey and Wood Green to back me one last time, and seize the best opportunity in a decade to help end this injustice once and for all.”

Councillor Katherine Reece, Liberal Democrat Children’s Spokesperson, adds:

“School funding is a complex issue, and this is a complicated consultation. But that doesn’t mean we should shy away from responding – all of us want this injustice to end.

“If you want to help us fight for our schools to finally get fair funding, please get in touch with Lynne’s office on 020 8340 5459 or on lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org to get straightforward guidance on how best to respond.

“And we have until the 11th October, so please help us spread the word, and help us finally get fair funding for our schools”